Have We Become Distracted from the Gospel?

The following is a post from Dr. Albert Mohler first published on June 1, 2004. Its truth rings even clearer today.

Is this evangelicalism's terminal generation? Without doubt, we are facing an unprecedented set of challenges to evangelical identity. The rise of a postmodern culture has produced an intellectual context in which the very concept of truth is held under suspicion, and claims to revealed truth are simply ruled out of order.

Benjamin Franklin, caught on the street during a break in the Constitutional Convention, is said to have been asked by a passerby to describe the new order to be proposed. "A republic," he answered, "if you can keep it." By definition, evangelicals are to be a Gospel people, cherishing, teaching, and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will remain evangelical only insofar as we maintain the integrity of our Gospel witness--if we can keep it. We are truly evangelical only if we keep our testimony to the Gospel without confusion or compromise.

We should be very concerned about certain trends in contemporary evangelicalism that threaten this integrity. The first is an ominous confusion about the Gospel itself. The heart of the Gospel is the objective truth that Christ died for sinners, and that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ--alone. The cardinal doctrine of justification by faith is, as Martin Luther warned, "the article by which the church stands or falls."

If so, the church is falling in many quarters. Much of what is presented in many pulpits--and marketed by flashy television preachers--bears little resemblance to this simple message. Instead, sinners are told to seek after riches, material blessings, vibrant health, and earthly rewards. Salvation is packaged as a product to be hawked on the airwaves and sold at a discount. The notion of salvation from sin and judgment is entirely missing from this scenario. Instead, salvation is presented as a gift of self-enhancement.

On the theological left, the Gospel had long ago been transformed into a social and political message of liberation from oppression. Now, among some who consider themselves evangelicals, the Gospel of Christ has been reduced to a form of self-expression or therapy. Salvation is promised as the answer to low self-esteem and emptiness. Gone is any notion of a holy God who offers salvation from sin and its eternal penalty.

The other pressing front in the current battle for the Gospel concerns the exclusivity of the work of Christ. The testimony of the Bible could not be more clear. Salvation comes to all who call upon the name of the Lord. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ--and through Jesus Christ alone.

In our culture of political correctness and intolerant tolerance, we are told that such a claim is simply unacceptable. There cannot be only one way of salvation. Who is to say that the religions of the world are wrong, and that Christianity alone is true?

Well, that is the non-negotiable criterion of evangelical faithfulness. Jesus identified Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life--and "no one comes to the Father, but through Me" [John 14:6]. Without this clear testimony, the Gospel is emptied of its integrity. The Bible allows no misunderstanding. Without conscious faith in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.

Dean Kelley, a liberal Protestant, once noted that, "Even the most gentle, humble, and loving Christians must divide the world into those who confess Jesus as Lord and those who don't." Given the clarity of the Gospel, we have no other choice.

Even so, various forms of compromise erupt on this crucial front in the battle for the Gospel. Some advocate an open universalism, in which all persons are eventually saved. Others promote pluralism, promising that all roads will eventually lead to God, and that no faith has a privileged claim to truth. Closer to home, some have advocated a form of inclusivism in which other religions and faiths are seen to be included in the work of Christ. Still others advocate a form of "anonymous Christianity" or a post-mortem opportunity to confess Christ.

Against these various attempts to evade the simple clarity of the Gospel stands the Word of God. Our evangelical integrity stands or falls on this truth--salvation is found through faith in Christ alone. This is the logic of the missionary mandate and the sustaining conviction for all evangelism. Nevertheless, the worldview held by many individuals today--especially those among the educated classes--flatly rejects such claims as imperialistic and arrogant.

Sociologist James Davison Hunter has long warned that younger evangelicals tend to go soft on this doctrine. Educated in a culture of postmodern relativism and ideological pluralism, this generation has been taught to avoid making any exclusive claim to truth. Speak of your truth, if you must--but never claim to know the Truth. Unless this course is reversed, there will be no evangelicals in the next generation.

Charles Spurgeon stated it plainly: "We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word." Those words ring with prophetic urgency more than a century after they were written. Evangelicals must regain theological courage and conviction, or we must face the tragic reality that this may be evangelicalism's terminal generation.

You can read more of Dr. Mohler's posts at www.albertmohler.com

Is Belief in God Enough?

According to a June 2008 survey conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 92% of Americans believe in God or a universal spirit. What does it mean to believe in God? Is belief in God the same as faith in God?

The Bible is clear that faith is more than just belief. It says, “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror (James 2:19).”

One gets the sense that faith takes belief to another level – that faith is belief with a purpose.

Last Sunday night, I heard Dr. Paul D. Tripp speak on the topic, “What is Faith?” Dr. Tripp agrees that faith is belief in the existence of God; however, he takes it a step further and focuses on the implications that flow out of faith in God. According to Tripp, if one has faith in God, one must believe that God is Creator, God is Sovereign, and God is Savior.

If you have faith in God, you must believe that God is Creator. The earth is not a cosmic accident. It was created by God and was created with a purpose. The Bible says, “God created everything through him (Jesus), and nothing was created except through him (John 1:3).”

If God created everything, we are His creations. As creations, we are not our own. We belong to Him. We were created for His purposes. He can do with us as He pleases. How foolish for us as God’s creations to try and live our lives apart from our Creator or to question His purposes.

Faith in God also means believing God is sovereign. God is the supreme ruler with absolute power and authority over His creation. Not only has God created the world and everything in it, He sustains and controls it. Nothing happens without his knowledge and permission. The Bible says,

“God promised everything to the Son (Jesus) as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command (Hebrews 1:2-3).”

Faith in God means believing He is Creator and believing He is in charge. Yet all of us live our lives like we are in charge. We all reject God’s authority over us and His standards. The Bible says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own (Isaiah 53:6).” It also says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23).”

Sin is not something made up by men to make others feel guilty. It is man’s rejection of God’s authority and standards. It is our rejection of Him.

This brings us to the third thing we must believe if we are to have faith in God – God is Savior. If God is Savior, it implies we need saving. From what do we need to be saved? From our rejection of God and His authority over us – our sin. The Bible says, “the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).” The consequence for our rejection of God is separation from Him forever.

But there is good news! Our Sovereign Creator God has provided a way to save us from our rejection of Him. The Bible says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).” And again, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).”

What about you? Are you one of the 92% of Americans that believe in God? What difference does that make in your life? What do you believe about Him? Do you know Him as Creator, King and Savior?

God Doesn't Shrug

Well I did it. It wasn’t easy, but I finally did it. I finished reading “Atlas Shrugged.” All 1,084 pages of it. My copy of the “Holy Bible” has 1,048 pages. This book is long.

A colleague of mine loaned me his copy (the original Signet paperback, in case you’re interested in that kind of thing) of “Atlas Shrugged” after hearing me give my two cents about the current economic turmoil. He said I would find the book relevant.

Relevant? Could a book written over 50 years ago (1957) by a woman who died more than 25 years ago (Ayn Rand) have anything relevant to say about today’s economic and political environment? I was amazed. It turns out I’m not the only one. “Atlas Shrugged” is #78 on Amazon’s current best seller list and has been one of their top 100 sellers for 101 days straight. Did I mention this book was written over 50 years ago?

“Atlas Shrugged” tells the story of a U.S. economy that is collapsing under the weight of government regulation and taxation. Those in power blame the wealthy capitalists for all of the nation’s ills and try to level the playing field by redistributing their wealth through taxation and finally nationalizing their businesses (sound familiar?). Finally, the capitalists, who are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders for little reward or appreciation, decide to quit and go on strike (Atlas shrugs). Without the capitalists around to produce goods and create wealth, there is nothing left to fund the largesse of the welfare state and it collapses upon itself.

As I read the first three quarters of the book, I kept finding myself agreeing with Rand out loud. Our government continues to confiscate more and more of the money belonging to its most productive citizens and redistributing it to those who are less productive. Even now, as it struggles to find more money to confiscate, our government has borrowed over $11 trillion (much of it from other countries) to pay for Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs. Who will be left standing when the music stops? It’s not going to be pretty.

As much as I agreed with the first three quarters of the book, I disagreed all the more with the rest of it. Near the end of the book, the hero of the story, John Galt, gives an impassioned speech that literally goes on for more than 90 pages. The speech makes an intellectual case for Ayn Rand’s philosophy – the philosophy of Objectivism. Rand describes her philosophy as:

“the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

According to Rand, the chief end of man is his own happiness. Man’s glory is his ability to think and produce. Charity and altruism are incompatible with his nature.

The whole time I was reading Galt’s speech, I kept thinking of Solomon’s writings in Ecclesiates:

“I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned. And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless! So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world. Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. So what do people get
in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless (Ecclesiates 2:18-23, New Living Translation).”

Rand says productive achievement is man’s noblest activity. Solomon says that without God, productive achievement is meaningless, filled with pain and grief.

Although Rand’s philosophy of rational self-interest may have merits as an economic or political system, it is incompatible with a Christian worldview. God is not welcome in Rand’s philosophy. To Rand, a sovereign God is an obstacle to man’s pursuit of his own interests. If you want to read a great essay by John Piper that both extols and critiques Rand’s philosophy, click here.

If anyone has a reason to shrug, it’s God. He created man in His own image so man can love and enjoy Him forever. He placed him in an idyllic garden and gave him everything his heart could desire. All God asked for in return was man’s love and obedience. But man decided to go his own way. He turned his back on God and disobeyed Him. When man learned the consequences of his sin, he blamed God. We do the same today. After all He’s done for us, who would blame God if He shrugged and went on strike? God has every right to quit on us, leave us to our own devices, and let the world collapse upon itself.

But what has God done instead? He became a man Himself. He went around healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and teaching about God’s kingdom. What was man’s response? We nailed Him to a cross.

Surely after this injustice God would have every reason to shrug and leave the scene. But, no. He raised Jesus from the dead and brought Him back to heaven. What’s more – whoever believes in Jesus – whoever, receives Him as their Savior – will live forever with God as one of His children.

What a great God! To Him be glory and honor forever.

Good News

Yesterday I had a discussion about God with a colleague at work. He brought it up – I didn’t.

Mike grew up in a Christian home, was educated in Christian schools, and even attended a Christian college. Today he’s agnostic.

He believes there’s a God. He even thinks God probably loves him. He’s just not sure what God is like or what God expects of him. He doesn’t think the Bible is authoritative because it was “written by men with an agenda.” He thinks everyone follows the same God – Christian, Jew, and Muslim. He’s also not sure what to believe about Jesus. He likes his teachings but just doesn’t trust what others have written about him.

If you ask Mike what keeps him from Christianity, he’s quick to respond – it’s Christians.

You see, Mike has a bad history with Christians. It started in his teen years when his sister committed suicide. At the funeral, while trying to share the gospel with those present, the minister made it clear his sister could not be in heaven because of her actions. Mike was incensed. Is this what God was all about? Follow the rules or be on the outside.

Mike’s parents made him go to a Christian college even though he didn’t want to. More rules. Little grace. Mike broke as many rules as he could and got himself kicked out.

He sees all Christians as setting up rules and forcing everyone else to follow. Think Moral Majority. It’s not lost on me that I haven’t been able to change his perception. At least not yet.

The gospel is supposed to be good news. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28; New Living Translation) We can do nothing to save ourselves. Christ has done it all. And yet, for some reason, we often imply that more needs to be done. When we do this, we add weight to the weary. Instead of rest, we wear them out.

God isn’t finished with Mike. He’s not finished with me either. There’s not a thing either one of us can do to earn God’s favor. This is good news.